


No one asked, please don't tell

by combefaerie



Category: Father Brown (2013)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Miscommunication, The rest of the gang are mentioned but not there, Why does Goodfellow have two tags? Which are people using more?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 09:02:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11376951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/combefaerie/pseuds/combefaerie
Summary: Sullivan is avoiding Sid, and Sid has no idea why. Was it something he said?





	No one asked, please don't tell

They were standing too close. It was dark, and secluded with no one else about, and Inspector Sullivan and Sidney Carter were standing much too close together. An argument was what had started it, and as they bickered everyone else had slipped away and the evening sun crept behind the nearby buildings leaving only the twilight illuminating them. When Sid argued he kept walking closer, and when Sullivan refused to back away they stood there for a second, faces only a few inches apart and their breathing heavy. Sullivan’s eyes flicked down towards Sid’s lips, it must have been for less than a second but it was noticed by the other man, whose mouth grinned quickly, before he pressed his mouth to Sullivan’s. For a moment Sullivan nearly pulled away and ran, but instead he pushed closer licking in to Sid’s mouth and fisting his hands in brown hair to pull the other man’s head down towards his own. When they broke apart, both men had flushed faces, and neither spoke. Sullivan backed away, shaking his head slightly, and still no words were spoken. He had turned to leave before Sid’s voice made him pause, and he looked to see Sid smiling: “I won’t tell anyone, Inspector, you understand?”. Oh. That was what it was, what he wanted. With a growing sense of unease, Sullivan briskly walked back towards his car.

 

A couple of weeks later Sid felt that enough was enough. Sullivan hadn’t spoken to him at all, barely even made eye contact, and if anything appeared to be avoiding him. A side effect of that was that he hadn’t been questioned for any thefts that occurred, whether or not he had been close at the time. At one point he even stole something from Lady Felicia on the condition that when Sid was arrested she would drop the charges, but the Inspector if anything seemed to be trying to avoid the idea that it was Sid, and after a few days he returned the necklace and Felicia declared that it had been anonymously returned. This was very odd, and to be honest he was also rather hurt that after what had happened they hadn’t even gone back to the bickering they had before, which he had enjoyed. When he talked to Lady Felicia about what had happened in order to get her to play along with the ‘theft’, she said that talking about it with him would be a much better idea (not that it worked terribly often with her and Monty…), and Father Brown agreed, but Sid declared that if Sullivan wouldn’t even look at him, then a discussion was probably out of the question and wouldn’t hear anything further on the topic.

 

That evening, Sullivan was drunk. He didn’t usually drink much, very rarely to the point of intoxication; it only really happened when he was very angry or upset, on this occasion it was a combination of the two. A deadly mix of sadness at what had happened and anger at himself at letting it happen, and for not doing anything about it since. He had no reason to be so scared, surely if he had stood up for himself he wouldn’t be in this situation, let alone if he hadn’t kissed him, hadn’t been… the way he was. But it was done now. He was jolted from his reverie by a knock on his door and opened it to find Goodfellow standing there in a shirt and brown jacket looking nervous. Sullivan was about to ask him what he could do for him, or more likely what he was doing here, but fidgeting with his hands Goodfellow started speaking first

“Begging your pardon Sir, but I was talking to my wife about the last few weeks, she likes to hear about my work, and looking back you have been acting a little odd. She suggested I come talk to you, and so I thought I would ask if everything is alright? If you would rather, I could go away, and I know this is rather irregular.”

After a moment of indecision, Sullivan smiled and stepped away from the door.

“Thank you. Do come in, I don’t know whether I will be good company, but I would like it if you stayed for a bit. And don’t feel you need to call me sir, I’m not a massive fan when we are on duty, and I really don’t feel anything like that having drunk this much whiskey.”

 

They were both sat in armchairs in the police cottage when Sullivan started talking, and coincidentally realised he had had too much to drink.

“It’s Sid. Sid Carter. He’s, infuriating, and I used to talk and argue with him, and I enjoyed that you understand Goodfellow? But now, now it is ruined. He knows, and he wouldn’t want to talk to me, and its dangerous if I do.” Goodfellow looked confused for a second but Sullivan continued “He could tell anyone, and he said he wouldn’t but… The way he said it. He smiled, the smug bastard, actually smiled as he said it! So I have to avoid him. That way he won’t have any reason to reveal me, and I won’t go to prison and lose everything.”

Goodfellow began to smile, he felt he was beginning to understand what was going on here, although there was a slight bit of confusion still present as he felt that he didn’t know the whole story.

“Sounds rough. I don’t know, but Sid is a good lad. I remember him as a boy, always up to mischief, always with a smile. My girls think he’s amazing, he always stops to talk with them if he has the time and join in a game with them. One time they put ribbons in his hair and he forgot to take one out when he left, drove her Ladyship to Hambleston with a pink ribbon by his ear.” A slight smile appeared on Sullivan’s face, before he quickly quashed it. “Anyway, I’d better be off, don’t want to miss a night off with the Missus, thanks for the whiskey. Hope that whatever it is with Sid works out, be seeing you tomorrow Sir.”

Leaving the other man to look pensively into his glass Goodfellow resolved to talk to the Father and Mrs McCarthy, see if they knew what was happening.

 

It turned out to be Mrs McCarthy who set right the situation by a combination of bullying Sid down to the Police Station, nodding at Goodfellow who waved them towards Sullivan’s office, and pushing Sid inside, locking the door after him. Sullivan, who hadn’t noticed the Parish Secretary as he had been reading some papers, was terrified and bolted out of his seat. This evidence that Sullivan was actually scared of him made the nervous smile that had been on Sid’s face disappear and be replaced with a heartbroken expression, which confused Sullivan slightly.

“Why are you here Carter? Do you want something? You aren’t suspected of anything, you have no reason to be here. You are free to go. Please go.”

“I would, but I think that Mrs McCarthy may have locked the door, at least until we talk. Why do you want me to go so much? Is, is it about what happened last month. Because I hate that it means that we don’t talk now, and if I made you uncomfortable I can only apologise and hope that someday you can forgive me.”

“Forgive you? How can you ask me that? You have been holding this over my head like an executioner's axe, and I have been in so much fear that if I do something you’ll…”

Sid’s confusion had only increased as Sullivan spoke, but his response was more angry than before

“An executioner’s axe? What the fuck have I done?”

“You threatened to tell people! It would ruin me, even if you couldn’t get a charge to stick, my reputation would be shot to death. My father hates me already, anything that could damage our family’s name would lead to me being disowned and banned from ever seeing other members of my family that I would actually miss. Do you think I haven’t been so _careful_ for years, careful not to get too close to anyone, careful to, to”

“Sullivan, please just listen to me, I-”

“No! You do not get to speak yet! It, it happens so rarely you know? That I, feel something, for someone, at all. I thought that if I just keep my head down and try to stay distant that the fact that when I feel anything it is always the wrong people, the wrong kind of love, that that wouldn’t matter. But then you turned up. And you infuriate me, you rile me up, make me need to respond to you no matter what. I hated you. I hated you right up until the moment when suddenly I didn’t. Or at least not only. I still hate you, you threaten me with blackmail and I don’t even know what you want me to do for it! But the worst thing? The worst thing is that I don’t entirely. Even after all of this, even after all that has happened, I still… feel for you. And that makes me the biggest fool in England.”

 

Sullivan tailed off breathing heavily, unable to lift his head to see how Sid had taken his speech. He had stood up when the other man had entered but now felt so drained that he had collapsed into his chair with shaking hands pressed to the dark wood of his desk. Footsteps, slowly moving towards him could be heard on the floor. Sullivan was bemoaning the creaky nature of the floorboards in his office, should have really got that seen to but it seemed like a poor use of his time he was going to have the metaphorical axe hanging above his head. A hesitant touch of fingertips under his chin brought him out of his reverie and he looked up to see Sid leaning over the desk with a smile. This was a new smile. It had no smugness, no mischief, no air of knowledge or superiority. Instead it was small, and nervous, and hesitatingly joyous.

“Hey, hey Inspector? Sullivan? I never meant for any of this to happen, I mean it, I would never intentionally put you in harm’s way. I like you too, and that was all I meant by that kiss I promise you. If you want me to go now then I will, I give you my word that I will never speak of what happened, I’ll swear on whatever you want me to. But I would much rather give this another go with both of us fully aware of the situation, that is what would make me the happiest. The decision is entirely yours and I understand if the former is your preferred choice.”

The inspector searched the other man’s face for any sign of malice or an ulterior motive but there was none, only open emotion and honesty, and he allowed his face to split open in a matching smile of his own.

 

This kiss was nothing like the first, it was slow and soft, hesitant from what had come before, and full of emotions that neither of them allowed themselves to name just yet. A while later Sullivan sat back but his hand stayed in Sid’s hair, thumb stroking the hairline almost unconsciously.

“You know Carter this may be the only time I say this, so make the most of it, but I really hope you have your lockpicks with you”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!   
> (I found it half completed in my wip folder, so if it seems a little different at the start and the end, now you know why!)


End file.
